Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), a generic condition involving some 10 to 12 million in the United States alone, is a difficult to diagnose, ubiquitous disorder characterized by extreme fatigue, lymph gland enlargement and constitutional symptoms such as weight loss, loss of appetite, memory deterioration and loss of intelligence in some patients. The condition occurs especially in younger, active people and is associated with infections by both RNA and DNA-containing viruses. Some CFS patients manifest neuropsychiatric changes such as depression, loss of memory and similar derangements. Thus, chronic fatigue syndrome is sometimes difficult to distinguish from entirely neurological disorders, particularly situational depression. Various laboratory studies indicate that many different viruses replicate in individuals having Chronic Fatigue, and that these individuals become, in effect, "virus sewers". Viruses such as Epstein-Barr, cytomegalovirus, retroviruses, herpes viruses, etc., are often present in such individuals where they remain for years and the patients beocme progressively fatigued and bed-ridden.
I have determined that specific alterations in 2'-5'A molecular pathways exist in the majority of individuals having Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which alterations have diagnostic and prognostic significance of enormous value. As an illustration, consider that many 25-30 year old women with very active small children at home often complain of "chronic fatigue", but are not necessarily virus-infected. The diagnostic procedures here described enable the clinician to ascertain which patients presenting symptoms of chronic fatigue and related symptoms including in some instances loss of weight, loss of appetite and neuropsychiatric changes, are properly classified as having Chronic Fatigue Syndrome with associated viral involvement and accurately distinguishing such patients from those presenting fatigue symptoms caused by other often external reasons and/or depression. Proper diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is the necessary prerequisite to effective therapy, which therapy is also herein described. These valuable diagnostic and therapeutic procedures are described below.
In addition to these diagnostic procedures, the first definitive therapy for this disorder has been developed using various double-stranded RNAs to correct the viral-associated disorders and successfully treat the patient's condition.
In previous studies, the diagnostic utility of individual components of the 2'-5' oligoadenylate/RNase L pathway has been reported especially as it relates to viral disorders in general and retrovirus infections in particular without particular reference to chronic fatigue symptoms. Specifically, it has now been determined that in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, among other things, an abnormally low 2'-5'A synthetase enzyme and an aberrantly activated RNase L enzyme, both integral parts of the cell's natural antiviral pathway, exist and correlate with the morbid fatigue condition. These two measurements thus can act as indicators or "markers" for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and thus can be used to definitively diagnose, and follow treatment of, the syndrome in a wholly new and clinically reliable manner. Further, the diagnosis is conveniently performed from a patient's peripheral blood sample without the need for surgery or other invasive diagnostic tests.